Networks are evolving towards the virtualization of network functions, and network functions are being designed to execute in virtual machines (VMs), with such functions commonly being re-allocated to execute in a cloud data center (DC). While some existing approaches include work in the network function virtualization (NFV) area, such approaches do not include utilizing data centers placed in a hierarchy based on a differential data center sensitivity (DCS) measure to serve a set of users such as, for example, mobile devices and users in a given geographical region, or enterprise users in a given location, or a community of users in an area with limited or poor connectivity. Existing approaches also do not include partitioning options, static or dynamic function collapsing, distributed replication, concurrent processing using replicated functions, or the ability to support differentiated services in such hierarchical data centers based on differential DCS measures.